Makarand Narvekar claimed that he even sustained injuries when he was pushed by Shiv Sena supporters
Bickering between ruling allies BJP and Shiv Sena came to a head at the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation headquarters on Wednesday, with the latter raising abusive slogans against Prime Minister Narendra Modi during a GST-related function, and BJP Colaba corporator Makarand Narvekar being heckled by Shiv Sena supporters. Narvekar claimed that he even sustained injuries when he was pushed by Shiv Sena supporters.
What happened
The function was held at the civic headquarters where Finance Minister Sudhir Mungantiwar handed over a cheque of Rs 647 crore to the municipal commissioner Ajoy Mehta towards the state contribution for GST to the BMC.
BJP corporators started chanting 'Modi, Modi...' to credit the PM with GST implementation. Sena corporators responded to the sloganeering by adding 'chor hai...chor hai' to BJP chants. This led to a war of words between the BJP and Sena corporators and Narvekar claimed he was man-handled by Sena corporators during the melee, while Sena corporators insisted he asked for it when he made a few unsavoury comments about their idol late Bal Thackeray.
The ugly spat took right in front of Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray and minister Mungantiwar who is also a senior BJP leader, but neither tried to pacify their factions. A few BJP corporators, led by Narvekar then chose to leave the House when Uddhav started addressing the function.
Why?
The two parties have been going hot and cold over several issues ever since the two broke up before 2014 Assembly elections, but came together to form the government in the state. BJP leadership wasn't happy to see Uddhav, who doesn't hold any constitutional post, at the function. Sena didn't like the way BJP corporators went chanting "Modi, Modi".
Who said what?
Makarand Narvekar: I was heckled and pushed by Sena supporters as I was leaving the function. It is very undemocratic of Sena to behave like this.
BJP group leader Manoj Kotak: Sena can't digest the fact that we won 82 seats in the BMC. We will decide whether to approach the police after discussing the incident with our leadership.
Sena corporator Arvind Bhosale: If Narvekar claims he was beaten up by Sena, I take the responsibility. Our response "chor hai" was for Lalit Modi, not for Narendra Modi.
Sena spokesperson Kishori Pednekar: Tikdun paththar aale, aamhi uttar dile (They threw stones, we retaliated).
Mungantiwar: I can understand enthusiastic corporators raising slogans for their own leader, but there should be no slogans which demean the alliance partners.
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